Prevalence and Socio-Demographic Association of Depression, Anxiety and Stress Among University Students

  • Authors

    • Sanil S Hishan
    • Heethal Jaiprakash
    • Suresh Ramakrishnan
    • Jaiprakash Mohanraj
    • Jayanthi Shanker
    • Lim Boon Keong
    2018-05-22
    https://doi.org/10.14419/ijet.v7i2.29.13998
  • Anxiety, Depression, Stress, Coping Strategies
  • Abstract

    Prevalence of Stress, anxiety and depression has been identified to be high among university students which may affect their social and professional lives. The study aims at assessing the prevalence of stress, anxiety and depression among university students and analyzes their association with gender, ethnicity and area of upbringing. The study also intends to identify their coping strategies. This was a cross sectional study utilizing validated questionnaires. It was conducted among a total of 143 university students in Johar bahru. The questionnaires used were the socio-demographic questionnaire, DAAS-21 questionnaire and Brief coping strategy Questionnaire. Data was analyzed using SPSS software. Descriptive statistics was used. The mean age of the students under the study was 25.02±8.6 years. Depression was seen in 62.2% of the students and anxiety and stress were seen in 78.3% and 55.9 % students respectively. Depression, anxiety and stress were found more in females than males. Anxiety was more in Malays and depression and stress was more among other ethnic groups. Anxiety and depression were seen more in students with a rural upbringing and stress in students with a urban upbringing. There was no significant association between depression, anxiety, stress and gender, ethnicity and area of upbringing. The mean score for the common coping strategies employed which was acceptance, positive reframing and self distraction were 2.8±0.9, 2.8±1.0, 2.8±1.0 respectively. Prevalence of anxiety was more compared to stress or depression. Students used active coping Strategies to cope with stress.

     

     

  • References

    1. [1] Crystal DS, Chen C, Fuligni AJ, Stevenson HW, Hsu CC, Ko HJ, et al. Psychological maladjustment and academic achievement: A crossâ€cultural study of Japanese, Chinese, and American high school students. Child development. 1994;65(3):738-53.

      [2] Uehara T, Takeuchi K, Kubota F, Oshima K, Ishikawa O. Annual transition of major depressive episode in university students using a structured selfâ€rating questionnaire. Asiaâ€Pacific Psychiatry. 2010;2(2):99-104.

      [3] Dyrbye LN, Thomas MR, Shanafelt TD. Systematic review of depression, anxiety, and other indicators of psychological distress among US and Canadian medical students. Academic Medicine. 2006;81(4):354-73.

      [4] Eisenberg D, Gollust SE, Golberstein E, Hefner JL. Prevalence and correlates of depression, anxiety, and suicidality among university students. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry. 2007;77(4):534-42.

      [5] Yasin M, Dzulkifli MA. Differences in depression, anxiety and stress between low-and high-achieving students. Journal of Sustainability Science and Management. 2011;6(1):169-78.

      [6] Ramya N, Parthasarathy R. A study on coping patterns of junior college students. Indian journal of psychological medicine. 2009;31(1):45.

      [7] Antony MM, Bieling PJ, Cox BJ, Enns MW, Swinson RP. Psychometric properties of the 42-item and 21-item versions of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales in clinical groups and a community sample. Psychological assessment. 1998;10(2):176.

      [8] Shea TL, Tennant A, Pallant JF. Rasch model analysis of the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scales (DASS). BMC psychiatry. 2009;9(1):21.

      [9] Shamsuddin K, Fadzil F, Ismail WSW, Shah SA, Omar K, Muhammad NA, et al. Correlates of depression, anxiety and stress among Malaysian university students. Asian journal of psychiatry. 2013;6(4):318-23.

      [10] Carver CS. You want to measure coping but your protocol’too long: Consider the brief cope. International journal of behavioral medicine. 1997;4(1):92-100.

      [11] Bayram N, Bilgel N. The prevalence and socio-demographic correlations of depression, anxiety and stress among a group of university students. Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology. 2008;43(8):667-72.

      [12] Noorbala A, Mohammad K, BagheriYazdi S, Yasamy M. A view of mental health in Iran. Tehran: Moalef. 2001.

      [13] MOHD SIDIK S, Rampal L, Kaneson N. Prevalence of emotional disorders among medical students in a Malaysian university. Asia Pacific Family Medicine. 2003;2(4):213-7.

      [14] Yusoff MSB. Stress, stressors and coping strategies among secondary school students in a Malaysian government secondary school: Initial findings. ASEAN Journal of Psychiatry. 2010;11(2):1-15.

      [15] Al-Dubai SAR, Al-Naggar RA, AlShagga MA, Rampal KG. Stress and coping strategies of students in a medical faculty in Malaysia. The Malayssian journal of medical sciences: MJMS. 2011;18(3):57.

  • Downloads

  • How to Cite

    S Hishan, S., Jaiprakash, H., Ramakrishnan, S., Mohanraj, J., Shanker, J., & Boon Keong, L. (2018). Prevalence and Socio-Demographic Association of Depression, Anxiety and Stress Among University Students. International Journal of Engineering & Technology, 7(2.29), 688-691. https://doi.org/10.14419/ijet.v7i2.29.13998

    Received date: 2018-06-10

    Accepted date: 2018-06-10

    Published date: 2018-05-22